The American Youth Sailing Force just signed LessAdmin.com as an Elite level sponsor. We're excited about using their software to help us keep administrative work more manageable. It's great when a sponsor has a product that is directly usable and one that is aimed at the marine marketplace too. We offer LessAdmin.com a Red Bull Youth America's Cup team with many diverse jobs that need to be accomplished if we are going to stand on the podium in September. We'll be testing their software in a complex environment and helping to improve its performance in the race campaigns. We think it's a win win solution for our team and for our sponsor.

The key is that the directors, producers, camera people AND commentators are all committed to always explaining and teaching at the same time that they are entertaining it works. Over and over I hear people not talking to the action, trying to pull too much technical showing off or conversely trying to dumb everything down. It is not that difficult to produce a balanced package.

SAP: Whilst we've managed to innovate and develop something quite unique for the sport of sailing in most of the domains relating to Extreme Sailing Series (truly global annual series, award-winning VIP experience, entertaining product for non-sailing public, etc), we've certainly not been up to the benchmark on explaining the racing via graphics for TV, internet etc.. The partnership with SAP will provide us with the tools to get us to the top level with graphics (explaining the racing to everyone), with very detailed performance analytics (for the core audience of sailing fans), and some interesting new tools for our race management team to help us deliver slicker and better communicated race courses. This is just the first chapter, and with the expertise and resources of the SAP team, we hope to then move on to break new ground - but it is step by step - first off, we need to get ourselves back to the top is this area. That has not been the case as we've been able to afford to put in even the basic tracking systems - SAP is helping us sort that, and then preparing the event for the next big leaps forward. Main Partners: SAP is a great addition to our family of Official Partners (which includes GAC Pindar on Logistics, MarinePool on Technical Clothing, and a new Official Timekeeper to be announced shortly), but we continue to discuss with various brands to take up the 2 x Series Main Partner slots - more news soon on this, it remains a priority for us to conclude this key remaining part of the commercial jigsaw.

I'm not up enough on the pluses and minuses of each sport to really say much. I've read with interest the arguments that have transpired on the ISAF athlete's list. I've found both sides of that argument lacking. Contrary to the windsurf side, I've seen kiteboarding events on SF Bay with 50+ kites and no tangles. As well as contrary to the kiteboard side regarding close competition, I've seen kiteboarding regattas where the winners were miles in front of the second place finisher. I thought replacing windsurfing with kiteboarding made about as much sense as doing away with women's match racing before the first cycle of competition in that sport had even taken place. ISAF needs to take a look at it's decision making process because I don't believe it is doing our sport any favors with it's current policies.

For the Extreme Sailing Series it is important that all of our venues deliver a sporting level is as high as it can be, but also that it brings the sport closer to the public, our VIP guests and the media through the Stadium Sailing format. Rio de Janeiro is an iconic venue that will lend itself perfectly to that, and in addition, Brazil has a strong appeal to both sponsors and teams seeking to offer a unique B2B experience in a fantastic venue. Rio has a proven record of organising high profile international events and over the next 4 years the world's eyes will be on Rio de Janeiro as they prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games and before that the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Media and commercial interest in the city is rising, and for us and our stakeholders, it is an important market to be in for the next 4 years. Although Brazil has some incredible sailing talent, it is still considered an emerging sailing destination as the sport is relatively unknown there. We hope that events like the Series will encourage new sailing talent and will reach new audiences."

We monitor thousands of online media around the globe throughout the year and we rely on each of the Host Venues and their agencies, participating teams and our own personal contact with media and journalists to get hold of print and TV coverage outside of the event periods as media monitoring around the world and across all platforms is very costly. We are transparent and conservative with the methodology applied to the media valuation using Havas market place advertising rates, which are considerably less, as opposed to standard rates. This is why Havas Sponsorship Insights applies a conservative 10% of unmonitored coverage which is inevitably missed outside of the events periods we monitor" "The circuits is hosted in 7 iconic cities over 10 months which doesn't allow much down time in between each of these Acts. Other news in between events, such as team or venue announcements, new developments in the Series or plans for the following season and media evaluation reports also get reported so there is no real problem on that front, and it's not a bad thing to have some breathing space in between each event like most sports do. We have very active content platforms such as the official event website and social networks, that fuel the media and fan base

Interesting comments from everyone, and I am very much in tune with Dawn in lamenting the removal of women’s match racing from the Olympics – if it was my call I’d have added men’s in too! The decision over Kite V Windsurf is a bitter blow for the windsurfing industry after almost 30 years as an Olympic discipline, and has the possibility of destroying businesses and careers. There is a campaign under way to have this ISAF decision reversed which is growing in momentum. Even the Kiteboarders were astonished that their lobby to become an Olympic discipline succeeded in time to be implemented ahead of Brazil, as there are many aspects of integrating it that are still to be determined, and it was anticipated it may first be included in 2020. It will be interesting to see if the decision is latterly overturned. Kiteboarding has exploded in popularity in recent years with an 'extreme' and exciting image, and with the likes of Richard Branson publicly advocating the sport and becoming a leading ambassador for it, however, windsurfing's enduring popularity, comparative safety and relative ease of learning for all ages compared to kiteboarding, has seen its participation levels continue over many years. Combined with its status as an Olympic discipline, this enabled NGB's to invest in training programmes and build an expertise, creating a very high level of competition that feeds right back to the grass roots in most developed countries, supporting millions of people globally. Both sports can be amazingly exciting - I have directed many hours of both of them over the years, but as Vince says earlier, one issue with a tight shot of kites is that all you see is a person magically standing on a board holding 2 bits of rope! Sure surfers have the same kind of shot, but they have a wave as a background - whereas in slalom kiting, the shots are limited. Freestyle is far more exciting from my perspective as Alexandre says. There have been rumblings about the future of sailing in the Olympics generally for a long time now as Ed states in his opening comments. It's not easy to televise and make both understandable and entertaining, (though this year's Olympic coverage may prove to be the best yet), is affected by the prevailing weather conditions (as are other Olympic sports), but is considered hard to 'pin' into a stadium environment where the public can see clearly what is going on and understand the rules. Weymouth this year has evidently sold most of the tickets for all events, and specially built grandstands will be full. The organisers are going to great lengths to make this an enjoyable experience for fans (and Britain is holding its breath for more Gold), so it will be interesting to see if Rob Andrews and his team there set a new benchmark in appreciation for what is possible, and potentially alter the perceptions of sailing in the Olympics. No pressure there then! One could ask, (I don't know but I am sure will be put right!), how many archers compete in the world, or indeed professionally, compared to a sport as large and commercial as sailing, if comparisons are asked for? Is it exciting to watch? Is it considered elitist? What about shooting - is there a more elitist sport with its image of tweeds and flat caps? Is it exciting and entertaining to watch, and are there millions of participants every weekend worldwide? Sailing does suffer image problems, but losing all those medal opportunities from the Games and the infrastructure behind it is quite a step for the IOC. Not impossible, especially in the face of potentially diminishing budgets in future years, but there would be outrage globally if sailing were removed, let alone windsurfing as we have seen. On their website the IOC states: ‘To make it onto the Olympic programme, a sport first has to be recognised: it must be administered by an International Federation which ensures that the sport's activities follow the Olympic Charter. If it is widely practised around the world and meets a number of criteria established by the IOC session, a recognised sport may be added to the Olympic programme on the recommendation of the IOC's Olympic Programme Commission’. Further, there is a long list of additional criteria that is then considered, and sailing certainly ticks all of them pretty well, as does windsurfing, but many people are finding it hard to say the same about Kiteboarding. According to some insiders involved at ISAF, there was confusion about which nation would vote for which discipline, and some people appear to have changed their mind at the last moment, tipping the balance by a small majority to kites. The question being asked now is, was this a personal decision, or was it made for the best interest of that nation’s sporting interests? The former is widely suspected, and the pressure, and that lobby to have this overturned next November at the next ISAF session is mounting steadily. Interesting times indeed, and almost 3 week’s worth of medals up for grabs in between then and now....

I agree that this has huge significance for sailing as a whole. It is encouraging to see that the new format for the AC is turning some heads in broadcasting and attracting attention from the general public as well. However, I do stand by the fact that whilst attracting the general public is certainly not a bad thing, what sailing must be able to do is stick to its core values. It is a unique sport and it is this that differentiates itself from others and offers sponsors something different. I believe that one of sailing's main strengths is that provides a fantastic avenue for sponsors to engage with a specific market in a number of ways. Moving away from this and trying to appeal to a new 'general' market only puts it in a place where it starts to compete for sponsors against other established mainstream sports. A balance must be struck where the 'product' is appealing enough for network TV but still keeping in line with its core values and its existing and long standing fans. From what I've seen so far Richard Worth and his team are on the right lines.

It depends on the objectives that were set at the beginning of the process. Did it meet it's budget? Did it get the coverage it expected? Did the sponsors get the ROI they expected? etc. Easy to say in a press release that it was a success but the real results won't be realized until they go to tender the next event.

What? Ainslie shouldn't have been penalized? You must be joking ... Ainslie was dead wrong and he definitively deserved to be DGM for these to races ..... Thank God he did not do it to an Umpire's boat... otherwise he'll be gone for good.. You cannot behave like that when you are such a super hero and get away with it .... ... He could have just shouted at the guy .... His result was not really affected ... he was second and finished second of that race ... I guess Ben's career is now fermly launched as he now in the tabloid - Good on him .. I have a huge respect for the guy .. but assault is a very serious offense these days ... Regarding the driver, there is no doubt that he shouldn't have been there .... But I don't know if you guys know Beather Beach where the incident occurred... try to drive a RIB going downwind surfing the waves and you'll see if its that easy ... In my view the people that should be RED Flagged is the organizing committee of this event ... who put a tight lid on k any videos footages of the incident to be released to the media .... Beurk that stinks